“By Gallamutra’s holy mace, there is a whole army of them!” Gamul groaned.

“Forget about the little guys, they have shamans along,” Ikarius said in a worried tone. “If they are any good, this is going to go very different from the last fight.”

“So what do we do?” Borgar whined. “There are too many of them. They are going to overrun us, tear us to pieces, ea-.”

“Borgar! Stay calm,” Ikarius shouted in a commanding tone. “You go up front with Gamul and scatter those kobold grunts. Catlyn, you provide magic support with your missiles. Stay back, so we don’t have to worry about protecting you. I will do my thing, and hopefully, their spells are either as useless as Catlyn’s, or we can get to them before they blast us apart.”

“Hey! I am right here! I can hear you; you know?” Catlyn protested. “And what about Marrow?”

“Right. Our pet skeleton. Marrow, you go and take the right flank against the Kobolds. Focus on covering the others and don’t get out of position!”

“Everyone go!”

Marrow had no idea what Ikarius had just shouted. Well, almost no idea. He understood ‘go,’ and the word kobolds seemed to refer to those creatures that were rushing toward them.

And Ikarius had given him a role! A task just for him!

It made him feel a bit fuzzy, right around the ribcage, which was a strange feeling, but a good one. Now, if only he knew what exactly he was supposed to do… but at least the word ‘go’ seemed pretty clear. So Marrow moved forward toward the kobolds.

He suspected that he should be doing something with the kobolds. Should he fight them? Put his arms around them?

If the past interaction between the group and kobolds was any indication, he was supposed to stick his sword into them. So that was his plan.

But then he got distracted by those glowing gemstones in the staves the kobolds at the rear wear bearing. Why did they glow? Was it like those torches and the flames that he had just learned about? But the light was much steadier, so surely it was something different. He… he really wanted to investigate them.

And then one of the gemstones lit up with a bright light and, faster than his eyes, such as he had, could follow, a jagged ray of… something bright shot out toward him and the group of adventurers. Marrow could feel his bones suddenly jerk a little bit and something tingle down his spine, into his legs and then his feet – a decidedly unpleasant experience, that left him somehow feel weaker.

Worst of all, smoke started rising from his ribcage.

Which made him mad.

Peripherally, Marrow heard Catlyn scream “Guys! They are at least level 15!” in a voice that was even more high-pitched than usual. And Borgar adding immediately: “Ikarius, you need to get them, I’ll guard our retreat!” with a voice that had those weird little tremors in them, a variation of his normal voice that he used when there were other creatures around or when Marrow looked at Borgar - one of those odd little patters Marrow had noticed.

Marrow did not really know what they were screaming, and he did not care that much either. No, his sight was set on those three kobolds that had marred him. Well, only one of them actually had, but since he did not know for sure which one it had been, he held all of them accountable. Culpability by association, not that Marrow thought in those terms. For him, it was a simple matter - one of them was guilty, so if he cracked the skull of all of them, the guilty one would be punished.

Rusty sword in hand, he walked straight toward the three kobolds with staves that were hiding behind the host of kobold grunts.

-----------------------------------------------------

“What is he doing?” Ikarius whispered. “Why is he just walking right up to the kobolds by himself. Is he suicidal?”

His confusion was shared with the kobolds. The ones at the front hesitated when they saw the lone skeleton approach them.

What kind of creature was that? Why would it attack them by itself? Was it that powerful? Perhaps that rusty sword was a mighty artifact… or was it a feint? Why did the others just shout stuff but not move?

Carefully, they took a step back, and then another.

The kobolds glanced at each other as if encouraging the respective next kobold to attack. The problem was that the bony thing moved with… with a purpose, and seemingly unconcerned about the presence of all the kobolds in front of it. And it did not even glance at them, making it look as if… they were beneath its notice.

Eventually, the kobolds started drawing enough courage from the proximity of their fellow kobolds and braced themselves for the inevitable onslaught, ready to swarm all over that skeleton the moment it attacked – following standard kobold battle doctrine.

But that attack never came. The skeleton just ignored them. Which made the kobolds even more confused. It was right in the middle of them and only pushed the kobolds in front of it out of the way.

Two of the kobolds with wands started yelling and gesticulating wildly, while a swirling red miasma formed around the third. Before it could let loose whatever fiery spell, it was casting, a tiny magic missile hit him on the chest, causing the spell to fizzle spectacularly.

And that fiery implosion of the spell, coupled with the enraged screeching of their shamans, finally made the kobold grunts realize that they needed to do something about the bone-human. Slightly trembling, the kobolds grabbed their weapons tightly and readied for an all-out assault on the creature in their midst, when suddenly they were hit from behind by a wildly screaming, giant human, swinging a huge sword in wide arcs that ripped through two or three kobolds at a time.

The kobolds whirled around to face the new threat and recoiled in shock when they noticed the bulging muscles, coupled with the crazed look on the red, sweating face of the warrior.

And behind the warrior there was a squat humanoid, two heads shorter than the big one but equally wide, laying into the kobolds with a slightly glowing warhammer, all the while muttering curses into his impressive beard.

The moment the kobolds thought they had adjusted to the new threat, mostly by each pushing another kobold into the path of those crazy creatures, they were picked off from the side or behind by a human that was somehow hard to keep track of.

And if that was not enough, suddenly a bright light started shining right on top of them, blinding them momentarily.

The balance in the battle had shifted clearly in favor of the adventurers – Marrow’s actions had thrown the kobolds into disarray, breaking their momentum, and then the others had capitalized on the distraction. Within the first minute, about a quarter of the kobolds was killed or heavily injured.

Something the kobold shamans were all too aware of. Rather than sit back and hope that the kobold grunts would manage to rally and overcome their opponents, they started calling forth their significant powers.

And here is where they made their second grave mistake of the fight – they mistook Marrow for a powerful skeleton with, likely, hundreds of years of experience. There indeed were those around the dungeons, albeit rarely seen in these parts – liches, dread knights, reaver skeletons, skeleton lords and kings, and others, most of which had memories ranging back hundreds if not thousands of years and were clinging desperately to their undead existence.

They were right in that Marrow was hundreds of years old… but when it came to experience, he was the equivalent of a fearless three day old.

Perfectly synchronized, the three shamans raised their hands. Dark energy raced up their arms, and erupted from their raised middle fingers, only to dissipate about a foot above their heads. For a couple of seconds, during which another three kobolds found an untimely end, nothing happened. But then dark clouds started billowing up from the ground in the middle of the combat, coalescing into an amorphous dark spirit creature that hovered above the floor, with black pulsing tentacles that touched everything around it indiscriminately.

“An abyssal mind-leech!” Ikarius screamed in shock. “Run!”

“Why the panic? It is just some smoke,” Gamul grumbled, waving his hammer through the smoky tentacles, while slowly backing away. “Ikarius, does this ev… Isigolde? How… what,…, you are whole! How is this possible? I… I missed you so much!”

Gamul dropped to his knees and reverently spread his hands about a couple of inches above the floor, stroking something unseen to everyone but him.

Not that anyone saw him do that, apart from Catlyn that is.

She saw it all.

She saw Borgar spread his arms wide, fiercely hugging the empty air in front of him, with tears streaming down his cheeks. And then, despite the gravity of the situation, Catlyn had to giggle, because, for some mysterious reason, Ikarius slowly began to undress, revealing a rather pale, well-muscled body, without any hair. When Ikarius took off his pants - a sight Catlyn had not previously been privy to - Catlyn’s eyes were glued on him, despite the rest of her brain insisting that just perhaps she should focus on other things.

“.”

Giggling quickly turned to her usual snorting when she saw all that was to be seen.

Caught in the mix of hilarity and sheer mind-numbing panic at the overwhelming forces they were facing, she feverishly thought about what to do, how to save the others. But she drew a complete blank, which sufficed to sober her up quite quickly.

In an act of desperation, she shot a magic missile at the spirit creature, but it went right through, not even causing any discomfort from the looks of it. The only good thing in the whole situation was that the kobold grunts did not fare any better and were mostly curled up on the floor in fetal positions.

And then Catlyn realized that she had not checked on Marrow, who was the furthest away from her, close to those three powerful kobold shamans.

-----------------------------------------------------

Marrow had been at least as surprised as everyone else by the sudden emergence of that spirit creature. Or perhaps less so. Sometimes it was hard to tell. On the one hand, until thirty hours ago, he had never even seen a spell, and all the monsters he had encountered had been spiders. So all of it was absolutely new to him. On the other hand, he had absolutely no expectation about what was normal or not.

Can one expect the unexpected?

While watching with fascination the dark cloud billow up from the ground and coalesce into the head-like cloud with tentacles, Marrow thought hard about this question, at least in conceptual terms - just another instance in which random questions flitted through his mind since he had upgraded his intelligence. He briefly remembered that he had wanted to inspect those glowing gemstones and punish the kobolds for marring his ribcage, but for the moment he was distracted by this completely new and captivating spectacle.

Intrigued, he watched one of the tentacles slithering toward him. As it got closer, Marrow suddenly was overcome by the urge to drop to all four and claw at the tentacle with his hand – a strange desire, indeed, especially because he held a perfectly serviceable, albeit rusty sword in his hand. But Marrow could not resist his nature.

The moment his hand touched the writhing dark mass, he could feel something dig through his memories, pulling forth all his darkest moments, his biggest fears, and most terrifying experiences.

Alas, not much was coming forth though.

Hundreds of years of staring at the same spot in a closet had formed a rather sparse set of recollections.

There was the moment that he had been in utter panic after seeing Catlyn for the first time… but seeing Catlyn again now hardly caused any response from Marrow. And then there was the Shadow-prowler, and that had been scary… but hardly something that the abyssal mind-leech could use because Marrow did not even know what a Shadow-prowler was – it just had been an instinctual fear.

With some annoyance, the mind-leech moved on to conjure memories of Marrow’s pristine bones being blackened, and not being able to hear the voice.

And that was a big mistake. Not so much for the abyssal mind-leech, who, ultimately, did not care about consuming the memories of one additional creature, especially one that had so little to provide in terms of sustenance as Marrow did. No, the problem was for the kobold shamans.

While Marrow was not prone to panic, being reminded of his blackened bones reminded him of his fury. And the voice… well, what better thing to do than crack some skulls!

So, Marrow strode purposefully out of the black billowing smoke right up to the three kobolds. All three of them had wisps of darkness dance along their arms, middle fingers stretched toward the ceiling. And all three looked at him with utter incomprehension - they had unleashed an abyssal mind-leech, a being that was powerful enough to quickly decimate an adventuring group or even an army, yet this skeleton walked out of its area of effect as if nothing had happened!

Dumbfounded, they just stared at Marrow until his fist hit one of them with a [Forceful Punch] on the head, causing it to drop to the floor unconscious. Finally, the other two shamans snapped out of their surprise and stopped supplying dark energy to the abyssal spirit. While the first grabbed a curved, richly ornamented dagger, coils of electricity started appearing around the arms of the other kobold. And this time Marrow knew what was coming. Rather than wait for the lightning to hit him, he jumped forward and threw his arms around the bewildered kobold. And then he opened his mouth impossibly wide and chomped.

With a gurgling screech of pain, the kobold tried to escape Marrow’s grasp, but Marrow knew how to hug tight – there was no escape.

The other kobold watched with a horrified expression at the blood dripping down Marrow’s ribcage, and the grinding motion of his jaws. With a desperate shout, it jumped forward and pierced the skeleton with the wickedly sharp dagger, which did a whole lot of nothing. Apart from the blade getting jammed between Marrow’s ribs.

Marrow’s head swiveled around 180 degrees and looked at the last kobold, with bits and pieces of kobold snout hanging between his teeth. And the kobold shaman froze. It was not as if it had not seen grisly things in its life or observed evil deeds… but to see one’s littermate reduced to gobbet in a skeleton’s mouth was more than it was prepared to see.

Marrow tried to decide – finish the one he had his arms around, or deal with the one that stood stock-still in front of him?

Ultimately, it was an easy choice – he already had started cracking the skull of one of them, so he might as well finish that one. The other one could wait. So, Marrow contently kept on chomping and quickly the kobold ceased to struggle, followed by the usual voice.

“Do you want to try to absorb [Kobold Shaman] brain? Chance of success: 10 percent.”

“Yes,” Marrow responded per his usual approach.

“Instead of growing in experience, you choose to increase your potential for future growth by absorbing a skill from a [Kobold Shaman]. Attempt: Failure!”

The familiar routine helped to calm Marrow down, especially because he had just eaten the brain of the likely culprit of his blackened ribcage. And, even better, there were lots of additional kobolds around.

Marrow did a quick 360-degree turn with his head to check the situation and was delighted to see the number of kobold skulls available. It was a bit strange that all the kobolds were laying on the floor in a curled-up position, clearly alive, yet unmoving, but that would make things easier for him. Even more strange was the behavior of Borgar, Gamul, and, most of all Ikarius.

Ikarius was suddenly quite pale, almost white, rather than his usual dark grey colors. And… was that a bone sticking out from him? Marrow was intrigued. He had never noticed anything stick out from there before, so it looked like just another piece of magic for him. He would have to ask about that, mainly because Marrow did not even have a bone there, that could stick out.

Meanwhile, the last kobold shaman tried to slink away.

But Marrow had none of that.

He dropped the body of the dead kobold shaman to the ground and jumped in his somewhat jerky style at the fleeing kobold shaman. If the shaman had been better trained in physical combat, or perhaps just younger and quicker, he might have made his escape. But as was, Marrow managed to tackle his legs and pummel him with [Forceful Punches]. The barrage of punches prevented the kobold from using any magic, and it was not long before it gasped a final time.

Marrow happily crunched his skull, receiving the same message as the previous time. But when he repeated the procedure with the third, and last kobold shaman, he finally received a different message.

“Instead of growing in experience, you choose to increase your potential for future growth by absorbing a skill from a [Kobold Shaman]. Attempt: Success!”

“You have gained the new skill [Dark Magic] from absorbing the brain of a [Kobold Shaman]”

Hungry for more, Marrow went to one kobold after another, cracking brains like a cook might break eggs. A grisly spectacle for sure, but only Catlyn was witnessing it, and she was too busy trying to snap Bogar, Gamul, and Ikarius out of whatever had them in its mental grip to object.

And eventually, Marrow was successful again.

“Instead of growing in experience, you choose to increase your potential for future growth by absorbing a skill from a [Kobold]. Attempt: Success!”

“You have gained the new skill [A Kobold’s Sense of Smell] from absorbing the brain of a [Kobold]”

Immediately all kinds of new sensations started bombarding Marrow’s brain, causing an overload of new impressions. Luckily, Marrow knew what to do – crack more skulls. It always had a calming effect on him, and so it did again this time.

After another ten more kobolds, the voice spoke up yet again. And this time it was a new message.

“You have met the requirements for new classes. Choose one:

Class: Killer (killed at least 30 defenseless opponents)

Class: Hero (killed at least 5 opponents that are 20 levels higher than you; successfully withstood the influence of dark magic; saved at least five other people from certain death))

Class: Fighter (used physical combat to defeat 30 or more opponents)

Class: Dark Mage (skill dark magic)

Class: Lich (undead; skill dark magic; at least 200 years old; intelligence of at least 15; intelligence is the highest stat; killed at least 30 sapient beings during the last hour)

Which class would you like to take?”